Or at least as normal as my life ever gets. Monday, This week has, so far, turned into a bad farce. Between the normal “life” stuff that tends to interfere with the writing, there’s been a leak that was related to both the new HVAC and the sewer system. That, in turn, wound up soaking a good bit of carpet in the hallway and my room. You know it’s bad when I agree to have a plumber come at 10 at night. Anyway, that is fixed, fans are running and the carpet is slowly drying. This weekend, I’ll see about replacing the pad but that may wait.

It would be easy to wallow in the fact my schedule has been shot to hell this past week. I’m behind on so much, not just writing and other things. Hell’s bells, I had been wallowing — until late last night. That’s when reality slapped me in the face and I realized that as frustrating as things had been, they aren’t really bad, not in the whole scheme of things.

Let me back up a bit. Around 4:30 yesterday afternoon, I was sitting in the den, laptop booted up, trying to get into the mindspace to write. That’s when an emergency vehicle went hauling ass down the street, sirens blaring. By the time I got to the door, two cop cars, lights flashing but no sirens, were racing past. They disappeared around the curve at the bottom of the street and I went back inside.

My initial thought, because the cop cars were rolling hot but silent was that there might have been a break-in. Possibly even a domestic disturbance or assault of some sort. Our neighborhood is really very safe but, once in a blue moon, something happens. That’s especially true during the summer when tempers run as hot as the temps outside.

Unfortunately, the truth of what happened was far worse than what I’d imagined. A three-year-old is dead, a drowning victim. He was found in the backyard pool. Details are, naturally, scarce right now but the cops are saying no foul play is suspected. This appears to be one of those horrible tragedies and my heart breaks for the family.

And it puts everything into perspective. Yes, I’m late on a number of projects. But all that does is make me have to work harder to get caught up. So, enough with the excuses and the self-pity and everything else. It could be so much worse and it’s not. This is something I can keep from getting worse.

In the meantime, my heart and my prayers go out to the family of this little boy. Their lives will never be the same.